Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball is back in Nashville for season 5

Megan Perry, the Vice President of Basketball at Athletes Unlimited, oversees everything. The organization is “excited” to be back in Music City, she told The IX Basketball. “There’s a brand new energy that I think we’re bringing this season that Nashville recognizes.”

That energy is driven in part by “the evolution of women’s sports,” Perry added. “The momentum is behind professional women’s basketball right now, and we recognize how the landscape is moving and shifting — and we’re meeting that energy.”

It’s also driven by the abundance of newcomers to the league, including Kelly, Morrow, Paopao, and Sheldon, as well as Tina Charles. “As I’ve been telling the girls, I’ve been watching [the league] for years from afar, and watching them compete,” Sheldon said. “I’ve had a lot of friends and teammates who have competed in it, so it’s awesome to now be a part of it.”

Joining the league also offers WNBA rookies like Paopao and Morrow, as well as Kelly (who was signed to a training camp contract with the Aces after going undrafted in 2025), the opportunity to learn from some of the best in the game.

When asked who she’s most looking forward to learning from, Paopao immediately had one player in mind: Tina Charles. The 8-time WNBA All-Star, 3-time gold medalist, and former WNBA Rookie of the Year is “obviously a great post player, and I feel like that’s going to be really fun to play with,” she explained. “She’s a great leader as well, so I can really pick her brain about the concepts of basketball.”

Want even more women’s sports in your inbox?

Subscribe now to The IX Sports and receive our daily women’s sports newsletter covering soccer, tennis, basketball, golf, hockey and gymnastics from our incredible team of writers. That includes Basketball Wednesday from founder and editor Howard Megdal.

Readers of The IX Basketball now save 50% on their subscription to The IX.

Paopao, who is originally from California but played for Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks before she was drafted to Atlanta this year, is also looking forward to have another reason to stay in the Southern US. “Girl, what? I love the South,” Paopao exclaimed when asked about spending time in Nashville. “I don’t think I’m going to move back to California, because I really fell in love with the culture, the community, and the food, obviously … Atlanta was probably the perfect spot for me to land.”

Kelly, who said she was “excited” to have the opportunity to spend time with the Aces and coach Becky Hammon during WNBA training camp this year, knows that some of her fans were “heartbroken” when she was cut — and sees her debut in AU Pro Basketball as a stepping stone back toward a more fully fleshed out professional career.

Playing in the league “takes a lot of stress or pressure out of, especially for a rookie like me, trying to make teams and trying to make rosters,” she explained to The IX Basketball. “What makes AU so special and unique is there’s no hidden agendas … you get to play free-minded, playing freely with joy, and with a lot of other phenomenal women and elite players who have experience in the league, and who have experience overseas.”

“As someone who is at the very beginning of her professional career, I need that support,” she added. “I need the knowledge, I need the life lessons. I want to hear other people’s stories.”

Providing veteran know-how and guidance is part of the fabric of what makes AU Pro Basketball different from other leagues, Isabelle Harrison explained. “We were pivotal in bringing leagues to the States,” she said. In a time when athletes have so many options (including Unrivaled and the recently announced Project B), AU Pro Basketball still stands out.

“We had nothing five years ago; we were the guinea pig to see if it worked or not,” she added. “And [we’ve had] the best result you could hope for. So, I mean, if you want to say we were the OG, we were the OG, and that’s what people have got to pay attention and tune in.”

Order ‘Rare Gems’ and save 30%Howard Megdal, founder and editor of The IX Basketball and The IX Sports, wrote this deeply reported book. “Rare Gems” follows four connected generations of women’s basketball pioneers, from Elvera “Peps” Neuman to Cheryl Reeve and from Lindsay Whalen to Sylvia Fowles and Paige Bueckers.

If you enjoy Megdal’s coverage of women’s basketball every Wednesday at The IX Sports, you will love “Rare Gems: How Four Generations of Women Paved the Way for the WNBA.” Click the link below to order and enter MEGDAL30 at checkout to save 30%!

Lexie Brown, who spent the 2025 WNBA season with the Seattle Storm but didn’t get a lot of court time, also noted that AU gives athletes an opportunity they haven’t always had. “The WNBA season is getting longer 1765011424, but it’s typically only been five months, so you have seven months out of the year not making any money. Typically, we were all overseas, but because everyone has so many opportunities in the States now, it just doesn’t make sense for people to leave.”

In the past, “you kind of fell off the face of the Earth for a few months and reemerged in the W,” she added. “You didn’t engage your fans, you didn’t engage organizations, and you didn’t get to see your teammates, but half the year you were supposed to come back and be like, ‘Okay, I haven’t seen y’all in six months, but let’s go win a championship. So it’s really good that everybody can stay home, be around each other, and show our personalities.”

There’s another element that makes AU Pro Basketball special: a thread of community that courses through the league. Athletes choose a cause to support, and at the end of the season, Give Lively and the Give Lively Foundation makes a grant donation equal to 100% of the winning athletes’ bonus to the organization or cause of their choosing.

Community is a crucial component of the league, Theresa Plaisance agreed. “AU allows a lot of things,” she said. “Off the court, AU provides a community that… you don’t have outside pressures, you don’t have pressures from coaches or general managers. You’re not getting critiques on such a frequent basis. You’re getting healthy critiques, you’re getting healthy feedback, you’re given everything that allows you to grow.”

That helps players “fall in love with the game again” when they play, she added. “When you play pro basketball, sometimes it really does feel like a job. And at the end of the day, we’re very fortunate that we are playing a game for our profession.” AU’s players can relax “once you’re not overthinking every little thing that you’re doing, if you’re not looking over your shoulder wondering, ‘Am I going to get cut today? Am I good enough?’”

“I think AU provides a way for people to shine, and allows people to find joy in the game again,” she said. “and I think that outside everything, I think that is the key thing that separates us from every other league in the world.”